Eddy Current Inspection of Graphite/Epoxy Laminates

A brief tutorial on eddy current nondestructive inspection is presented, re viewing the fundamentals of this technique and the application to inspection of composite materials. It is argued that eddy current methods should be sensitive to the presence of broken fibers caused by damage in conductive composite materials, such as graph ite/epoxy. Experimental work has shown that eddy currents are sensitive to inclusions, ten sile failure and impact damage but not to delaminations. Therefore eddy currents can be used to search for the first three defect types and to evaluate the extent of damage in delaminated composite materials.